Treatment by a massage therapist can provide significant relief to a patient with back and neck pain. Massage and other physical therapists typically have specialty cushioned tables upon which the patient can lie during treatment, and from the end of which extends a cantilevered head support device for carefully supporting the patient's head during treatment in a desired way. When the patient returns home and lies down on his or her bed, however, the patient does not typically have the benefit of such a head support device, and instead must simply lay his or her head down on a pillow. After a sleep session, through head and neck interaction with the pillow where the neck and spine are not well-aligned, some of the relief gained from the visit to the therapist can be undone.
Various head support devices have been proposed for interfacing with a patient's bed in ways that are intended to provide the benefits of a specialty massage table using a normal “sleeping” bed, for resting or for use during kinds of treatment at home. For example, see U.S. Pat. No. 6,928,679 to Gross, U.S. Pat. No. 7,036,168 to Knickerbocker, U.S. Pat. No. 6,151,734 to Lawrie, U.S. Pat. No. 6,148,460 to Fried et al., U.S. Pat. No. 8,176,587 to Matt et al. U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US 2012/0278993 to Gard et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,081,947 to Disher, U.S. Pat. No. 7,306,612 to Landa, U.S. Pat. No. 5,337,429 to Tucker, U.S. Pat. No. 4,917,363 to Evans et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,584,731 to Carter, U.S. Pat. No. 3,608,103 to Seid, Canadian Patent No. 1,209,455 to Younger et al., and Canadian Patent No. 2,390,038 to Smith et al.
Various head support devices have disadvantages, such as lack of adjustability, a difficulty keeping to a particular position alongside a bed and a difficulty keeping proximate to the bed while a patient turns within or gets out of the bed.
It is an object of an aspect of the following to address these and other disadvantages.